Davis-Chamberlin-Perrine Farm

Davis-Chamberlin-Perrine house and barns, December 2018.

Historical Overview

Standing at 221 Southfield Road is a 5-bay, T-shaped, 2-story house with one-story additions. Behind the house are multiple barns and outbuildings. This complex of a few dozen acres (in 2023) makes up the former "Hollyfield Nursery" garden center. It is also a member of West Windsor's "100 Club."

An architectural survey from 1988 posited that the house dates to the first quarter of the 1800s.[1] If so, it was very likely constructed by Elijah Davis, who owned the property at least by 1801 (if not earlier)[2] and perhaps inherited the land from his father, Isaac, who is suspected to have been a Revolutionary War soldier.[3] Tax records from 1821 show Elijah owning one male slave (name unknown) and 156 acres of farmland.[4]

In 1831, Elijah sold the farm to his son, Abijah, for $2,000.[5] The deed referred to a "farm plantation," indicating that a house existed by this time.[6] Five years later, Randolph Chamberlin purchased the farm.[7] He had two wives - Mary Isabella Duncan (died 1841) and Anna Perrine, and with them had at least a dozen children - see adjacent photo.[8]

Local legend persists that the house was an Underground Railroad stop during the mid-1800s (and thus during Randolph's ownership of the property).[9] No proof is currently known to corroborate this theory but research is ongoing.

The property passed out of Chamberlin hands in 1908 after it was bought by Tracy and Isabel Dawes,[10] who, in turn, sold the farm to Walter Wood in 1926.[11] It then passed to the American Philosophical Society in 1934,[12] the Ewart family in 1936,[13] and finally Muriel and Stanley Perrine in 1954.[14]

Stanley served multiple roles in local government in the 1970s-80s: on the Zoning Board, Planning Board, Local Assistance Board, Township Committee, the West Windsor Charter Committee, and even as Mayor for a few years.[15] He and Muriel co-owned a landscaping business and turned their farmland into a tree nursery and landscaping company called Hollyfield Nursery and Garden Shop.[16] In 1986, West Windsor's Stanley R. Perrine Public Works Facility at 70 Southfield Road was dedicated in Stanley's honor.[17]

Stanley passed in 2000[18] but Hollyfield Nursery continued operating for many years.[19] However, Muriel passed in 2020.[20] Three years later, the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District purchased the 28-acre property for potential use as the site of a new school.[21] However, at the time of this writing (2023), the house, nursery, and outbuildings still stand as longtime elements of West Windsor's historical landscape.

The roughly 30-acre Hollyfield Nursery in 2002.

Below is a video, published in 2022, of various West Windsor farms in 1957. Skip to 1:27-1:56 and again 4:16-end to see footage of the Davis-Chamberlin-Perrine farm!

Bibliography

“Mercer County Historic Sites Survey: West Windsor Township, Mercer County, NJ.” Princeton, 1988. Conducted by Kinsey & Hand Associates.
Davis, Elijah, Davis, Nathan. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1801. Deed for an adjacent property that references Elijah Davis' farm being at what is now 221 Southfield Road. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Middlesex County Deed Book 6 Page 26.
Lineage book, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Vol. 87. Washington, DC: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1911. Mentions Isaac Davis as a wagoner in the New Jersey Militia and birth/death dates of 1724 and 1796, respectively.
West Windsor Township Tax Ratables, 1817.” West Windsor Township, 1817. Located in archives of the Historical Society of West Windsor at the West Windsor History Museum.
Davis, Abijah, Davis, Elijah, Davis, John. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1831. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Middlesex County Deed Book 23 Page 532
Ibid.
Chamberlin, Randolph, Davis, Abijah, Davis, John. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1836. Located in the New Jersey State Archives, Middlesex County Deed Book 29 Page 715.
Lee, Francis Bazley. Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey. Lewis Publishing Company, 1907
Ligeti, Paul T. I., and Schenck, Mary. Interview with Mary Schenck. Personal, 2009. Note: Mary, born in the 1920s, was also a co-founder of the Historical Society of West Windsor.
Chamberlin, Margaret C., Dawes, Isabel C., Dawes, Tracy H. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1908. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office.
Dawes, Isabel C., Dawes, Tracy H, Wood, Walter. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1926. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office.
American Philosophical Society, Wood, Walter. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1934. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office.
American Philosophical Society, Ewart, Ethel B. "Deed.” West Windsor, 1936. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office.
Perrine, Muriel W., Perrine, Stanley R., Ewart, Ethel B. "Deed.” West Windsor, 1954. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office.
"Minutes and Records of the West Windsor Township Volunteer Fire Company, Organized March 21, 1921.” West Windsor: West Windsor Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 firehouse, n.d. Minutes detailing the first 11 years (1921-1932) of the West Windsor Volunteer Fire Co. No. 1’s development.
“Obituaries - Stanley R. Perrine." The Princeton Packet. October 17, 2000.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
“Obituary Information for Muriel W. Perrine.” Obituary information for, June 12, 2020. https://www.saulfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/Muriel-W-Perrine?obId=15030531.